


Petals

by Anonymous



Category: Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie
Genre: Comfort, Nonnies Made Me Do It, Other, POV First Person, Temporarily Unrequited Love, hanahaki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-30 20:18:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13959231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Medic had sealed the door to all but me.“I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said, and I supposed she hadn’t. Hanahaki had been eradicated some five hundred years ago; modern medicine had given immunity to everyone on this ship.Everyone but one. Seivarden sat on a bed in Medical and coughed up a handful of tiny, bright petals, like iridescent fishscales falling from her mouth.





	Petals

I awoke to Ship telling me that I needed to attend Medical; for a moment, I wondered if I had sustained and then forgotten about an injury, but then Mercy of Kalr let me know that it was Seivarden. 

Medic had sealed the door to all but me. 

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said, and I supposed she hadn’t. Hanahaki had been eradicated some five hundred years ago; modern medicine had given immunity to everyone on this ship. 

Everyone but one. Seivarden sat on a bed in Medical and coughed up a handful of tiny, bright petals, like iridescent fishscales falling from her mouth. 

“Breq,” she said, spitting out another gout of flowers. “I fucked up.”

“You did,” I said, and she laughed, and then choked. “Who is it?” 

Seivarden scowled. “Are you seriously going to tell me that you don’t know?” she asked.

“It must have been going on for some time to get this bad,” said Medic. Seivarden mumbled something. “I’m sorry, what was that?” 

“Since someone jumped off a bridge for me.” 

That gave me pause. Hanahaki was a disease between humans; although ships loved their captains, they never vomited flowers. Had I been able to, the temple offerings on Ors would have all been Lieutenant Awn’s favourite flower. And I had certainly never heard of a captain loving a ship enough to...

Seivarden spat up another lump of petals. 

“At least no-one will think I’m kneeling to you anymore,” she said. “Or they’ll think if I am, then…”

“Stop being melodramatic,” said Medic. “Ship is searching for all the possible treatments. There’s one that will remove the flowers and the regard, which—"

“No,” I said. “There’s an easier treatment.” I’d seen plenty of cases of flower-sickness among my baby lieutenants; even, sometimes, between officers. It was not wiped out so long ago that I didn’t remember what needed to be done. “It comes down to reciprocity and pheromones.”

“Don’t be stupid,” said Seivarden. “I know there’s some things you can’t—don’t want to—" 

“Let me finish,” I replied, and sat on the bed beside her, taking her hand, threading our fingers. She inhaled, already taking air more easily. “There’s more than one way to reciprocate affection, you know.” 

She leaned against me, then, her forehead pressed to my neck. Medic and I would have to alter Seivarden’s shifts so that she could share sleeping hours with me; I would have to ensure that she knew — that her body knew — that I didn’t want her to drown in flowers. But this could be beaten. Absently, I stroked a hand over her hair. 

“I’m an idiot,” she said. 

“Sometimes,” I agreed. She snorted, and I felt her eyelashes move against my skin as she closed her eyes. “Medic, inform Lieutenant Ekalu that she will be in charge this morning.” 

“Very good,” said Medic. I checked Seivarden’s readouts. She was breathing with less obstruction. “Well, well, well. What do you want me to put on the record?” 

“The truth,” I said. 

“But people will think that you love—" Seivarden began. 

“I don’t care,” I said. “If it wasn’t already obvious—"

“It was,” said Medic.

“—then it should have been,” I finished, and felt Seivarden’s arm tighten minutely around me, so I squeezed her, just gently, in return.


End file.
